Ravens and Writing Desks
by thelinksthatconnectus
Summary: It was over. The one secret that the two girls hadn't kept hidden from the world was about to be all over the school. Maddie/Raven


When Raven and Maddie finally realized what was going on between them (and they could finally point their fingers on the reason why their hearts fluttered around each other and they couldn't keep the other out of their mind), they decided to not make it public. Ever After High May have been filled with rebels, from from pixies who want to grow to the size of fairies, princesses who could care less about being rescued, and puppets who wanted to be real, but that didn't mean that they needed to add something else to the royal's gossip mill. Raven already had enough things being said about her, anyway.

"You don't mind, do you?" Raven had asked. Her voice had shook while she spoke, her eyes on everything but Maddie.

"Does a seagull mind the desert?" Maddie had replied. Raven was far from fluent in Riddlish, but she had come to understand some of it from being around the Wonderland native so long.

Raven's smile had filled her entire face. "I'm glad that you agree with me."

There were a few people who knew, of course. Maddie told her father everything; the next time that Raven had seen him, he had shot her a warm smile and given her an even warmer cup of tea on the house. Cerise knew and swore to keep it a secret.

"You know my secret," she had said. "So why should I tell yours?" She had smirked. "Though I have to wonder if the reason you're keeping this a secret is to keep Ashlynn and Hunter as the school's favorite couple."

Raven had rolled her eyes. "As if I want people constantly talking about me." Ashlynn and Hunter were a couple most rebels idolized, and a couple that the royals either liked (though some would never admit it) or detested.

"I think it's a little late for that, Raven." Cerise giggled, and Raven hadn't been able to stop herself from joining along.

Raven had always been talked about. From when she was just in nursery rhyme school, her other classmates had either laughed and pointed at her or avoided her like the plague. Maddie was different. Though she (and the rest of the Wonderlandians) were known for being odd, they were never treated quite as harshly.

Being treated as vile, called every despicable word in the book, and being avoided at all costs... Knowing Maddie the way Raven did, she knew that the other girl could never handle that kind of treatment.

And she never will, Raven had sworn to herself.

It was a piece of paper that had torn them apart. One simple piece of parchment paper, passed along during study hall.

Oh, why didn't I just do my throne work? Raven thought.

She already knew why, of course. Reading about evil spells she would never cast and writing an essay on why villains (which, no matter what Headmaster Grim said, Raven was not) were hardly as exciting as writing notes to Maddie.

"Apple, can I have that piece of paper back?" Raven's voice shook near the end. "Please?"

Apple looked to Raven from the corner of her eye, but then looked back to the paper in her hand. Her eyes widened as she read it.

Of course it had to be Apple, Raven thought.

It must have been her own little curse for deliberately failing her last Curses 101 experiment. That had to be the reason she had missed catching the wadded paper ball that she and Maddie had been throwing back and forth to each other the entire period.

That, Raven thought, or Headmaster Grimm slipped a bad luck spell into my backpack yesterday when he called me over to his office.

It was over. The one secret that the two girls hadn't kept hidden from the world was about to be all over the school. Who wouldn't believe it? Apple White was known not only for her charming demeanor and ability to talk with animals, but also for her honesty.

"Uh, here you go," Apple said. Her eyes were on the ground as she handed the paper back to Raven. "Just don't let the teacher see you passing notes, okay?"

"Okay," Raven replied. She grabbed the piece of paper as fast as she could.

She looked to the paper, to the three words that ruined everything. Most people thought "I love you" were happy words, words that signified any truly happy happily ever after.

"You are befitting of an apple whenever I see you," were the words that she had written instead.

Raven stared at the words. They were her handwriting of course, not too great to be neat, but not too bad to be considered sloppy.

I can't believe it, Raven thought.

Her other words, written in dark purple pen to contrast with Maddie's words written in lime green ink, were written in the same tone.

Riddlish, Raven thought. How could I forget that we agreed to only write to each other in Riddlish?

From the corner of her eye, she looked back to Apple. Her eyebrows were raised and nose wrinkled, hardly the look of a gossiper.

She grinned.

She doesn't know, Raven thought.

It was a good thing that the school had decided to add Pig Latin (taught, rather ironically, by the big, bad wolf) as one of its foreign language classes instead of Riddlish. Raven would have to thank her lucky stars that night before she went to bed.

Raven grabbed her pen and responded to Maddie's newest note. As she scribbled down her answer, her smile never left her face.

Maybe she was more fluent in the language than she had originally thought.


End file.
